The Day We Went to War by Terry Charman

Author:Terry Charman
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780753537787
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

‘Aren’t we a very old team?’ Chamberlain’s War Cabinet. From left to right (standing): Lord Hankey (Minister without Portfolio); Leslie Hore-Belisha (Secretary of State for War); Winston Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty); Sir Kingsley Wood (Secretary of State for Air). From left to right (seated): Lord Chatfield (Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence); Sir Samuel Hoare (Lord Privy Seal); Neville Chamberlain (Prime Minister); Sir John Simon (Chancellor of the Exchequer) and Lord Halifax (Foreign Secretary).

Apart from Churchill, and, to a lesser extent, Hore-Belisha, it is not a very inspiring collection of personalities to galvanise Britain’s war effort against the Nazis. Chamberlain, as he himself recognises, is not cut out to be a war leader. ‘Holy Fox’ Halifax, ‘Slippery Sam’ Hoare and Simon are all heavily tainted by appeasement. Wood, though efficient and with acute political antennae, is seen as merely a protégé of Chamberlain’s. Chatfield, despite his grand-sounding title, has little political clout, and Hankey, while a great civil servant, is virtually unknown to the general public. As regards Hore-Belisha, many of his cabinet colleagues and the military ‘top brass’ think him ‘publicity mad’ and lacking in substance. His Jewish ancestry also tells against him in the mildly anti-semitic atmosphere of the British Establishment.

Churchill towers over them all. Today has proved that he has been consistently right in his warnings about Hitler’s aggressive designs. He is seen by many as the man who will put both backbone in his colleagues and much-needed drive into the nation’s war effort.

5.00pm, PARIS SOIR OFFICE, PARIS

Editor Pierre Lazareff writes in his diary, ‘This time it’s definite. We’re in. We’re at war. No wild enthusiasm. There’s a job to be done; that’s all. As our men leave to join their regiments they can be heard to say, “We’ve got to put an end to this.”’

Just as in Britain, Lazareff recalls that the French ‘have been told for months now, that “on the very first day of the war, there will be raids on all the big cities . . . and Paris will be destroyed within a few minutes”. A number of citizens have left Paris, but not many. Parisians stroll around with their gas masks slung over their shoulders. Every once in a while, they look up into the sky, but there is no trace of panic. Life goes on.’

4.00pm (5.00pm), BERLIN

At the British Embassy all telephone lines are now cut. Sir Nevile and his staff’s only contact is now through the United States Embassy which is now looking after British interests in Germany as the ‘Protecting Power’. In Britain, the Swiss Legation is doing the same for Germany. Outside the Adlon Hotel newsboys are giving away an extra edition of the Deutsche Allegemeine Zeitung to passers-by. Its headlines read:

BRITISH ULTIMATUM TURNED DOWN

ENGLAND DECLARES A STATE OF WAR WITH GERMANY

BRITISH NOTE DEMANDS WITHDRAWAL OF OUR TROOPS IN THE EAST

THE FUEHRER LEAVING FOR THE FRONT

TODAY GERMAN MEMORANDUM PROVES ENGLAND’S GUILT

4.00pm (5.00pm), FRIEDERICHSTRASSE STATION

William and Margaret Joyce see that newspaper extras announcing Britain’s declaration of war are being given away by newsboys under the bridge outside the station.

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